WENN

Christina Aguilera, Sting, Bebe Rexha, New Kids on the Block, and Bastille were among the acts who braved a torrential downpour in New York to ring in 2019 in Times Square, New York.

After last year's big freeze, revellers were thrilled the temperatures were a little higher on Monday night, but the rain didn't let up as the stars celebrated the new year.

The event marked the first rainfall in Times Square on New Year's Eve in 30 years.

Highlights included New Kids' hits medley as they roamed through the rain-soaked crowd, and Aguilera's shower of hits just before the ball dropped to herald in 2019, while rocker Sting performed a new version of his hit Brand New Day, which he wrote to mark the turn of the century in 1999.

Taylor Swift was also in the Big Apple for New Year's Eve – but she wasn't performing.

Instead, she hosted a celebrity costume party, dressed up as The Little Mermaid, Ariel.

Gigi Hadid and couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively were among the guests – the model dressed up as Mary Poppins, while Lively came as The Wizard of Oz's Dorothy.

Elsewhere, Florida Georgia Line and Maren Morris entertained revellers in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Aloe Blacc headlined the New Year's Eve celebrations in Los Angeles, and Madonna surprised fans by performing at the Stonewall Inn in New York City.

The singer, who was recently named an ambassador for the fabled venue on the site of the riots that helped launch the LGBTQ movement back in 1969, told fans, "I stand here proudly at the place where pride began, the legendary Stonewall Inn, on the birth of a new year. We come together tonight to celebrate 50 years of revolution.

"If we truly took the time to get to know one another we would find that we all bleed the same colour and we all need to love and be loved."

Madonna performed her hit Like a Prayer and a cover of Elvis" Can't Help Falling in Love.

And Mariah Carey, who has performed in Times Square on New Year's Eve for the past two years, headed to the Caribbean to ring in 2019, performing at an exclusive bash for some of the world's richest people in St. Barts.